23:26 (IST): Pune Pistons' duo of Ashwini Ponnappa and Joachim Fischer Nielsen take the first set against Marcis Kido and Pia Zebadiah Bernadet of Awadhe Warriors 21-16.

23:23 (IST): "I am very happy that my team qualified for semi-finals after I won the match today. One side of the court was slow and the other one was very fast. I tried keeping the shuttle down all the time so that I can win as many points as possible to win the match," Tien Minh Nyugen said after beating RMV Guru Sai Dutt.

23:12 (IST): "It was another day at office. I and Kido were leading by 4 or 5 points throughout the match today and had complete control on our game. Also there was no point when we were under pressure," Mathias Boe said after beating Arun Vishnu and Sanave Thomas of Pune Pistons.

22:09 (IST): Marcis Kido and Mathias Boe of Awadhe Warriors go 14-10 up against Pune Pistons pair of Arun Vishnu and Sanave Thomas in the second game.

22:06 (IST): "I have played against Schenk twice but this is the first time I won the game and am feeling really happy. Also I am thrilled and touched to see my college friends and teachers who have come here to support me," PV Sindhu after beating Juliane Schenk on Pune Pistons.

22:03 (IST): Marcis Kido and Mathias Boe of Awadhe Warriors go 7-1 up against Pune Pistons pair of Arun Vishnu and Sanave Thomas in the second game.

21:58 (IST): Marcis Kido and Mathias Boe of Awadhe Warriors win the first game of men's doubles against Pune Pistons pair of Arun Vishnu and Sanave Thomas 21-15.

21:53 (IST): Marcis Kido and Mathias Boe of Awadhe Warriors take 14-12 lead against Arun Vishnu and Sanave Thomas of Pune Pistons in the first game.

21:48 (IST): Men's doubles: Arun Vishnu and Sanave Thomas of Pune Pistons lead Marcis Kido and Mathias Boe of Awadhe Warriors 7-6 in the first game.

20:31 (IST): K Srikanth of Awadhe Warriors is ranked 38th in the world while Saurabh Verma of Pune Pistons is ranked 36th.
20:29 (IST): K Srikanth of Awadhe Warriors takes 14-3 lead Saurabh Verma of Pune Pistons in the second game.

On a high after back-to-back wins, Awadhe Warriors, led by star shuttler P V Sindhu, would look to enhance their semi-final chances when they square off against Pune Pistons in the Indian Badminton League in Hyderabad.

The Warriors remained in contention for a semi-final berth by defeating Mumbai Masters 3-2 in Bangalore on Saturday. They had earlier trounced Delhi Smashers.

The Lucknow-based outfit have 12 points from four ties with two wins and as many losses and need to win their last tie to book a berth in the knockouts.

It will be Sindhu's first match at home in the tournament and she will surely get the backing from a partisan Hyderabad crowd.

The world championships bronze medallist would be high on confidence after prevailing over seasoned Tine Baun in an enticing three-gamer on Saturday.

On the other hand, Pune are on a high having earned 14 points from four ties and is coming off from a 4-1 hammering of Banga Beats at home on Friday.

Led by star Ashwini Ponnappa, the side boasts of players like Nyugen tien Minh, Saurabh Verma, Anup Sridhar, Juliane Schenk, Joachim Fischer Nielsen who can give their rivals a run for their money.

Sridhar would be high on confidence after his upset win over world number eight from Hong Kong Hu Yun (Banga Beats) in the last encounter.

Yesterday's result

# The Delhi Smashers defeated hosts Banga Beats 4-1 to keep their hopes of a semifinal spot alive in the Indian Badminton League (IBL) here on Sunday. (In pic: Delhi Smashers' Jwala Gutta)

# Winning the tie at the Sree Kanteerava Indoor Stadium helped the Smashers won five points and are now fourth with 13 in the standings. On the other hand, the Beats lost their third tie in four outings and are last on table with nine points.

# In the first men's singles rubber, Beats' icon player Parupalli Kashyap registered a 21-15, 21-11 victory over B Sai Praneeth od Delhi Samshers to make it 1-0.

# Jindapon Nichaon of the Smashers overcame Carolina Marin of Beats 21-17, 15-21, 11-9. H.S. Prannoy sealed the tie for the Smashers when he defeated former national champion Arvind Bhat 21-18, 7-21, 11-8 in the second men's singles rubber.

# In the mixed doubles match, Delhi's icon player Jwala Gutta came together with her former partner V. Diju to take on Carsten Mogensen and Carolina Marin and won the match in three games to give her team the extra point.

Playing rules

# The standard two-point gap to win a game has been abandoned in favour of a race to 21 points for the first two games and 11 points for the decider, if needed. There will also be a minute's break after the seventh and 14th points in the first two games and after the sixth point in the decider.

# All ties, including the August 31 final in Mumbai, will have five matches -- two men's singles, and one each in women's singles, men's doubles and mixed doubles.

# Each team, comprising four foreign players, six Indians and one upcoming Indian junior, will play on a home-and-away basis in the preliminary league, with the top four qualifying for the semi-finals.

Despite a thrilling victory by world number one Lee Chong Wei of Mumbai Masters in the opening match on Friday, they lost the script after Hotshots bounced back with Saina guiding the team to a 3-2 win.

Mumbai Masters will look to put behind the disappointment of the defeat at the hands of Saina Nehwal-led Hyderabad Hotshots in their previous match and focus on staying in hunt for the semifinal berth when they cross swords with resilient Awadhe Warriors in the Indian Badminton League (IBL) here on Saturday.

Despite a thrilling victory by world number one Lee Chong Wei of Mumbai Masters in the opening match on Friday, they lost the script after Hotshots bounced back with Saina guiding the team to a 3-2 win.

MOSCOW, August 23 - Malaysian badminton star Tan Boon Heong has unofficially broken his own world smash speed record, propelling the shuttle to 493 kilometers per hour, Russia's National Badminton Federation said Friday.

The record is equal to about 306 miles per hour, by far the greatest recorded speed for a projectile in badminton or indeed any other sport - including tennis, football and ice hockey.

Tan Boon Heong, a doubles specialist, attempted the record in a special experiment along with the world's No. 1 singles player and Olympic champion Lee Chong Wei, who himself broke Heong's previous mark of 421 kph by 35 kph.

Where or exactly when the record was broken was unclear. The website of the Guinness Book of World Records says a 332 kph smash (206 mph) by Fu Haifeng of China in 2005 is the current record, a discrepancy possibly explained by different measuring techniques.

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP) – Badminton's world number one Lee Chong Wei faced calls on Friday to reduce his rigorous playing schedule if he wants to extend his career to the 2016 Olympics.

The 30-year-old was stretchered from the court during this month's world championships final against Lin Dan with cramp and dehydration, in the latest heartbreaking defeat to his nemesis.

But Lee, still without a world or Olympic title despite consistently topping the rankings, was back playing in the lucrative new Indian Badminton League (IBL) just days later.

"He should not participate in too many tournaments," said Zolkples Embong, Malaysia's national sports council director-general, adding that Lee should focus on the Olympics and next year's Asian Games.

KUALA LUMPUR: The Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) will elect their new president in what is expected to be a low-key affair on Saturday.

Barring any turn of events and last minute lobbying, Kelantan BA president Tengku Tan Sri Mahaleel Tengku Ariff is expected to replace the outgoing president Datuk Seri Nadzmi Mohd Salleh to helm the national body.

The 66-year-old former Proton CEO (chief operating officer) has the important task of naming two key positions – a committed secretary and also a dedicated coaching and training committee chairman.

The new leader may resort to sticking with Ng Chin Chai as the secretary, after all, the latter has done quite well to tighten up the administrative work at all levels in the last three years.